Health Highlights: Jan. 26, 2016

Actor Abe Vigoda Dies at 94

Heroin, Painkiller Overdose Drug Offered to High Schools for Free

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Actor Abe Vigoda Dies at 94

Abe Vigoda, an actor best known for roles on the 1970s television comedy "Barney Miller" and in the film "The Godfather," has died in his sleep at age 94, the New York Times reported.

According to the newspaper, Vigoda was a 50-year-old stage actor when he landed the role of mobster Salvatore Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather." He went on to star for many years as the laconic Detective Phil Fish on "Barney Miller."

Daughter Carol Vigoda Fuchs told the Associated Press that Vigoda died in his sleep at her home.

Speaking of his "Godfather" role, Vigoda told Vanity Fair in 2009, "I'm an actor who spent his life in the theater. But Francis said, 'I want to look at the Mafia not as thugs and gangsters but like royalty in Rome.' And he saw something in me that fit Tessio as one would look at the classics in Rome."

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Heroin, Painkiller Overdose Drug Offered to High Schools for Free

U.S. high schools can receive for free a nasal spray that rapidly reverses heroin and prescription painkillers overdoses, Adapt Pharma says.

The company made the announcement Monday at a summit held by the Clinton Foundation's Health Matters Initiative, which is partnering on the program, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The drug Narcan (naloxone) will be offered to high schools through state departments of education.

There could be some challenges moving forward with the project, including creating rules that allow school staff to administer the drug in an emergency without the risk of liability from parents or guardians.